IDF estimates 20,000 Palestinians left Gaza City overnight

By Emanuel Fabian

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15 September 2025, 9:00 am

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Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza by foot and in vehicles along the coastal road toward southern Gaza, Sunday, September 14, 2025. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)

More than 320,000 Palestinians have so far evacuated Gaza City to other areas of the Strip, according to fresh IDF estimates, ahead of the army’s planned offensive against Hamas in the area.

Some 20,000 are estimated to have left Gaza City overnight.

Around one million Palestinians were estimated to be residing in Gaza City before the IDF began to prepare for the major offensive against Hamas there. Last week, the IDF ordered all of Gaza City to evacuate immediately ahead of the planned offensive.

Civilians have been instructed to head for an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south, but many Gazans say nowhere in the Strip is safe.